President Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election results “clearly is a threat to democracy,” but President Joe Biden is a “worse threat to democracy” because he used the power of his office to force social media companies to “censor his political critics,” Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said on April 1.
During the interview with CNN, anchor Erin Burnett asked Mr. Kennedy if he thought President Biden and President Trump posed an equal threat to democracy.
“I can make the argument that President Biden is the much worse threat to democracy, and the reason for that is President Biden is the first candidate in history—the first president in history that has used the federal agencies to censor political speech, so to censor his opponent,” Mr. Kennedy responded.
The next day, Mr. Kennedy reiterated his stance on Fox News and added: “If you have a president who can censor his political opponents, he has the license for any kind of atrocity—that is a genuine threat to our democracy.”
“All of this, the use of the courts, the use of prosecutors, the use of all these federal agencies to change our political landscape, it just is wrong, and we should be debating about it,” Mr. Kennedy added.
The White House cited a report in 2021 that labeled Mr. Kennedy as one of the “disinformation dozen” who distributed what it deemed inaccurate information about COVID-19 vaccines.
Last month, the Supreme Court heard arguments on Murthy v. Missouri, a case that derives from a lawsuit by Missouri and Louisiana Republican state attorneys general alleging that the Biden administration instructed Big Tech companies to remove social media postings that didn’t support the government’s narrative of the COVID pandemic, the 2020 presidential election, and other controversial subjects.
Similar litigation brought forth by Mr. Kennedy was incorporated into the legal filing.
Lower court rulings banned multiple White House officials from corresponding with Facebook, Google, and X (formerly Twitter) about content moderation.
Supreme Court justices are expected to rule on Murthy v. Missouri by the end of June.
The Democratic National Committee—which has formed a campaign to combat third-party and independent candidates, and has accused Mr. Kennedy of being a “stalking horse” to “prop up” President Trump—condemned the the independent presidential candidate’s comments on April 1.
In a statement, DNC Senior Adviser Mary Beth Cahill said: “With a straight face Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said that Joe Biden is a bigger threat to democracy than Donald Trump because he was barred from pushing conspiracy theories online.
“There is no comparison to summoning a mob to the Capitol and promising to be a dictator on day one,” Ms. Cahill continued, noting that: “Robert F. Kennedy Jr. laid to rest tonight any doubts that he’s a spoiler candidate by pushing his MAGA talking points in prime time.”
Earlier this month, the DNC announced the creation of a team to counter third-party and independent presidential candidates.
It hired Lis Smith, a veteran Democrat strategist who managed Pete Buttigieg’s unsuccessful 2020 presidential campaign, to spearhead an aggressive communication plan to combat Mr. Kennedy, independent Cornel West, and Green Party nominee Jill Stein.
News about the DNC’s campaign followed its March 4 complaint with the FEC contending that American Values 2024 did not disclose $10 million in loans.
It marked the second time in a month that the DNC has accused American Values 2024 of violating federal finance campaign law.
The FEC complaints illustrate the DNC’s attempts to destabilize Mr. Kennedy’s campaign as President Biden faces a plummeting job approval rating and mounting questions about his mental fitness.
The DNC and the president’s supporters are accusing Mr. Kennedy of being propped up by the Trump movement, as well as highlighting similar Trump–Kennedy policy stances in the areas of border security, U.S. funding for Ukraine, and vaccine mandates.
“It’s clear that Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is being propped up and funded by Donald Trump and his allies because they believe that he is a useful stalking horse who could throw the election Trump’s way.
“We need to sound that alarm every day between now and the election,” Ms. Smith said.
Mr. Kennedy entered the presidential race last April, challenging President Biden for the Democrat party nomination.
After encountering multiple hurdles by the DNC and accusing the organization of “rigging the primary” and not allowing any candidate to compete against President Biden, Mr. Kennedy announced he would run as an independent in October 2023.
Throughout his campaign, Mr. Kennedy has lamented a lack of “fair coverage” by mainstream media outlets who frequently claim he is a “conspiracy theorist” and an “anti-vaxxer.”
“If my only news sources were CNN and MSNBC, I would have a negative opinion of myself,” Mr. Kennedy has said with a grin at multiple campaign stops.
In the CNN interview on April 1, Mr. Kennedy talked about a wide range of issues beyond his belief that President Biden is a worse threat to democracy than President Trump.
Regarding the Jan. 6 incident at the U.S. Capitol, Mr. Kennedy told Ms. Burnett: “I’m not going to defend President Trump on that, and it was appalling. And there’s many things that President Trump has done that are appalling.”
Mr. Kennedy said that the 2000 presidential election was stolen in favor of George W. Bush over Al Gore. He also mentioned a 2006 article he wrote for Rolling Stone that questioned the results of the 2004 presidential election.
He believes that people who speak out about election integrity should not be persecuted.
“People who say that the election is stolen, we shouldn’t make pariahs of those people. We shouldn’t demonize them. We shouldn’t vilify them. What we should be doing is saying, let’s all get together, Republicans and Democrats, and fix the election system,” Mr. Kennedy said.
Mr. Kennedy told CNN that he was “pulling a little more” from President Trump than President Biden and that neither candidate will “solve the debt crisis in this country” and “get us out of foreign wars.”
“You have both sides using scare tactics. Republicans say that if Joe Biden gets in, it’s gonna be the end of the Republic.
“Democrats say if Donald Trump gets in it’s going to be the end of democracy.
“I don’t think either of them are actually going to destroy democracy. We have institutions in this country that are pretty enduring,” Mr. Kennedy noted.
President Biden and President Trump “differ on culture war issues like abortion, guns, and the border” which “are important issues, but neither is talking about issues like the debt, which is $34 trillion.”
“The service on that debt is more than our military spending. In five years, 50 cents out of every dollar collected and taxes are gonna go to servicing the debt.
“President Trump and President Biden ran up the debt together in just four years each. They ran more spending than all the previous presidents going back to George Washington,” Mr. Kennedy explained.
President Trump and President Biden don’t talk about the chronic disease epidemic, AI, and the “corrupt merger between state and corporate power which is undermining democracy,” Mr. Kennedy said.
“President Trump and President Biden don’t have the capacity to address it because they’re part of that system.
“They’re both being financed by BlackRock and State Street and Vanguard, the military contractors and pharmaceutical industries and that system just spits out bad policies,” he explained.
“President Trump and President Biden have each had their chance. You’re gonna get more of the same if you vote for them,” Mr. Kennedy noted.
Responding to Ms. Burnett’s question about concerns by Democrats and Republicans that he would be a “spoiler,” Mr. Kennedy vowed to remain in the race for the duration.
“The chance for me to actually change the nature of governance in this country, to restore democracy, to restore our nation’s moral authority abroad, give us a foreign policy that is not based on war or projecting military power abroad, but on projecting economic power and moral strength.
“The chances of that happening are too great and too important for me to give up this contest,” Mr. Kennedy said.
Ms. Burnett played video interviews of Mr. Kennedy’s sister, Rory Kennedy, telling CNN last week she is concerned that her brother’s campaign will take votes away from President Biden and help President Trump get elected.
On St. Patrick’s Day, a dozen Kennedy family members were photographed at the White House with President Biden and shared their support for him in a social media post.
President Biden replied to Kerry Kennedy, Mr. Kennedy’s sister: “From one proud Irish family to another—it was good to have you all back at the White House.”
Mr. Kennedy explained that, when he was growing up, his father encouraged spirited debate among siblings and cousins.
“I have a big family, about 105 cousins on the last time we counted. I have a big family. I don’t know anybody in America who’s got a family who agrees with him on everything,” Mr. Kennedy said.“I come from a family, from a milieu where we came home at night, and ate dinner with my father and he would orchestrate debates between us and we were—in the same way that his father did with him.
“And we could disagree on issues, and we could disagree with passion and information, but we still loved each other. And I love Rory. I love my family. I feel loved by them.”
